Charles Daly Barnet (October 26, 1913 – September 4, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist , composer, and bandleader.
84-603: His major recordings were "Nagasaki", "Skyliner", " Cherokee ", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", "In a Mizz", and "Southland Shuffle". Barnet was born in New York City, the son of Charline (Daly) and Willard Barnet. His parents divorced when he was two, and he was raised by his mother and her grandparents. His grandfather was Charles Frederick Daly, a vice-president for the New York Central Railroad , banker, and businessman. Barnet attended boarding schools, both in
168-858: A Baptist minister. Freberg was of Swedish and Irish descent. He was drafted in the US Army from 1945 to 1947 where he served in Special Services attached to the Medical Corps at McCornack General Hospital in Pasadena, California . Freberg's work reflected both his gentle sensitivity (despite his liberal use of biting satire and parody ) and his refusal to accept alcohol and tobacco manufacturers as sponsors—an impediment to his radio career when he took over for Jack Benny on CBS radio. As Freberg explained to Rusty Pipes: After I replaced Jack Benny in 1957, they were unable to sell me with spot announcements in
252-428: A Calypso tune. Freberg first recorded the song in 1952, but the 1957 version is the most well known, which lampoons Elvis Presley in one verse: "I turn on Elvis Presley and my daughter scream. / I fear she have a nervous breakdown cos of heem. / I wonder why he wiggle-waggle to de beat. / As a boy he must have had a loose bicycle seat." Freberg's musical parodies were a product of his collaborations with Billy May ,
336-486: A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World , Freberg appeared in a non-speaking role as the Deputy Sheriff and acted as the voice of a dispatcher. Contrary to popular belief, George Lucas called upon Freberg, not Mel Blanc , to audition for the voice of the character C-3PO for the 1977 film Star Wars . After he and many others auditioned for the part, Freberg suggested that Lucas use mime actor Anthony Daniels ' voice. Freberg
420-548: A committee." The album also featured the following exchange, where Freberg's Christopher Columbus is "discovered on beach here" by a Native American played by Marvin Miller . Skeptical of the Natives' diet of corn and "other organically grown vegetables", Columbus wants to open "America's first Italian restaurant" and needs to cash a check to get started: Native: "You out of luck, today. Banks closed." Columbus: [archly, knowing what
504-446: A copy of Freberg's record to Godfrey's legal department for permission, which was denied. Capitol also rejected the equally acerbic "Most of the Town", a spoof of Ed Sullivan 's "The Toast of the Town" , under similar circumstances. Both recordings were eventually issued in a box-set Freberg retrospective issued by Rhino Records . Freberg continued to skewer the advertising industry after
588-509: A core standard to learn early on in a jazz pupil's development. Notably, Charlie Parker learned the tune in his early days in all 12 keys as a training exercise. The composition has a 64-bar AABA construction. The A-section harmony is straightforward by the standards of 1930s songs, but the B-section is more sophisticated. This is because "it cadences (via ii-7–V7–I progressions) into the keys of B Major, A Major and G Major before moving toward
672-561: A cult classic. Another hit to receive the Freberg treatment was Johnnie Ray's weepy " Cry ", which Freberg rendered as "Try", exaggerating Ray's histrionic vocal style. Johnnie Ray was furious until he realized the success of Freberg's 1952 parody was actually increasing sales and airplay of his own record. Freberg reported getting more angry feedback for this than from any of his other parodies. With Daws Butler and June Foray , Freberg produced his 1953 Dragnet parody, " St. George and
756-611: A disguised Bugs Bunny wearing a fox suit. He was the voice of Pete Puma in the 1952 cartoon Rabbit's Kin , in which he did an impression of an early Frank Fontaine characterization (which later became Fontaine's "Crazy Guggenheim" character). Freberg's work as a voice actor for Walt Disney Productions included the role of Mr. Busy the Beaver in Lady and the Tramp (1955), and he did voice work in Susie
840-413: A few seconds. (Noting the brevity, Ankle asks, "Isn't that kind of a short song?" to which the producer answers, "Yeah, it gets more plays that way.") "I Was on My Way to High School" (complete with fake audience noise from a "scream machine") is the corresponding flip side. The promoter then tries to bribe a disc jockey at a jazz station to play the song on the air, which he flatly refuses, suspecting that
924-442: A fictional citizens' radio review board, who constantly interrupts Freberg with a loud buzzer as Freberg attempts to sing " Old Man River ". Tweedly first objects to the word "old", "which some of our more elderly citizens find distasteful". As a result of Tweedly's interventions, the song's lyrics are progressively and painfully distorted, as Freberg struggles to sing the classic song in a form that Tweedly says must be acceptable "to
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#17332029437591008-507: A film extra while trying to interest local bandleaders in hot music, which was increasingly unpopular due to the Great Depression . Late in 1932, aged 18, he returned east and persuaded a contact at CBS ' artist bureau to try him out as an orchestra leader. Barnet began recording in October 1933, during an engagement at New York's Park Central Hotel , but was not a great success for most of
1092-404: A first-rate accordionist, copied Welk's accordion playing. In the parody, the orchestra is overwhelmed by the malfunctioning bubble machine and the entire Aragon Ballroom eventually floats out to sea. When he met Freberg, Welk denied he had ever said "Wunnerful, Wunnerful!" and objected to the ending, futilely asking to have the orchestra rescued. But despite his denial of the phrase, Welk made it
1176-763: A lark in Havana , as an escort to well-to-do older women. 1936 saw another swinging Barnet edition, which featured the up-and-coming vocal quartet The Modernaires but quickly faded from the scene. The height of Barnet's popularity—and his first truly permanent band—came between 1939 and 1941, a period that began with his hit version of " Cherokee ", written by Ray Noble and arranged by Billy May . In 1944, Barnet had another big hit with "Skyliner". In 1947, he started to switch from swing music to bebop . During his swing period, his band included Buddy DeFranco , Neal Hefti , Lena Horne , Barney Kessel , Dodo Marmorosa , Oscar Pettiford , Wes Dean, and Art House, while later versions of
1260-430: A medley of Foster's standards in rock and roll style at one point adding Foster's lyrics to Haley's arrangement of " Shake, Rattle and Roll "; " Rock Island Line ", based on the 1955 Lonnie Donegan skiffle version, with interruptions by Peter Leeds ; and a spoof of The Platters ' hit " The Great Pretender " (1956). He recorded a parody of Elvis Presley 's first chart record, " Heartbreak Hotel ". In Freberg's version,
1344-592: A resident of Hope Springs, where he worked for B.B. Hackett's Consolidated Paper Products Company. Freberg suggested the addition of dream sequences, which made it possible for him to perform his more popular Capitol Records satires before a live studio audience. The series was broadcast over the CBS Radio Network from January 8 to September 23, 1954. The Stan Freberg Show was a 1957 replacement for Jack Benny on CBS radio. The satirical show, produced by Pete Barnum, featured elaborate production, and included most of
1428-422: A single-chord accompaniment, retorting, "I'm not playing that 'clink-clink-clink jazz'!" But Freberg is adamant about the pianist's sticking to The Platters' style: "You play that 'clink-clink-clink jazz', or you won't get paid tonight!" The pianist relents—sort of. The pianist even quotes the first six notes from Shearing's classic piece " Lullaby of Birdland ", before returning to the song. The song concludes with
1512-477: A sketch involving the musicians in the painting The Spirit of '76 . The terribly hip fife player ("Bix", played by Freberg) and the younger drummer (played by Walter Tetley ) argue with the older, impossibly square drummer ("Doodle", also voiced by Freberg) over how " Yankee Doodle " should be performed. The popularity of Freberg's recordings landed him his own radio program, the situation comedy That's Rich . Freberg portrayed bumbling but cynical Richard E. Wilt,
1596-408: A sponsor after Freberg decided he did not want to be associated with the tobacco companies that had sponsored Benny. In lieu of actual commercials, Freberg mocked advertising by touting such products as "Puffed Grass" ("It's good for Bossie, it's good for me and you!"), "Food" ("Put some food in your tummy-tum-tum!"), and himself ("Stan Freberg—the foaming comedian! Bobba-bobba-bom-bom-bom"), a parody of
1680-618: A table in the parking lot). Any requests for folk music, twist, watusi , or rock and roll will result in instant execution by golf balls at 20 paces." Barnet did not play at the gathering. Barnet's theme song was "Redskin Rhumba". His autobiography, Those Swinging Years: The Autobiography of Charlie Barnet , written with Stanley Dance , was published in 1984. Barnet was married eleven times and in his autobiography says: "I went through several more marital fiascos, but they were mostly Mexican marriages and quickly annulled, because they weren't legal in
1764-623: A veteran big band musician and jazz arranger, and his Capitol Records producer, Ken Nelson. . In late 1957, as TV "champagne music" master Lawrence Welk 's ABC TV show gained popularity nationwide, Freberg released "Wun'erful, Wun'erful! (Sides uh-one & uh-two)", a freewheeling mockery of the show, Welk's stilted, cornball delivery and the questionable musicianship of some of Welk's sidemen. To faithfully replicate Welk's sound, May and some of Hollywood's finest studio musicians and vocalists worked to clone Welk's live on-air style, carefully incorporating bad notes and mistimed cues. Billy Liebert,
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#17332029437591848-499: Is a jazz standard written by the British composer and band leader Ray Noble and published in 1938. It is the first of five movements in Noble's "Indian Suite" (Cherokee, Comanche War Dance, Iroquois, Seminole, and Sioux Sue). Due to the tune incorporating many of the chords most commonly used in jazz and the multiple key transitions of the B-section, the tune is often recommended by tutors as
1932-619: Is not funny, Freberg. Stop making jokes!" A watered-down version of the parody was eventually aired. On two occasions, Capitol refused to release Freberg's records. "That's Right, Arthur" was a barbed parody of controversial 1950s radio/TV personality Arthur Godfrey , who expected his stable of performers—known as "little Godfreys"—to toady to him endlessly. The dialogue included Freberg's "Godfrey" monologue, punctuated by Butler imitating Godfrey announcer Tony Marvin , repeatedly interjecting, "That's right, Arthur!" between Godfrey's comments. Capitol feared Godfrey might take legal action and sent
2016-456: Is time for Beany." Freberg made television guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and other TV variety shows, usually with Orville the Moon Man, his puppet from outer space; he reached through the bottom of Orville's flying saucer to control the puppet's movements and turned away from the camera when he delivered Orville's lines. Freberg had his own ABC special, Stan Freberg Presents
2100-592: The Chun King Chow Mein Hour: Salute to the Chinese New Year (February 4, 1962), but he garnered more laughs when he was a guest on late night talk shows. A piece from Freberg's show was used frequently on Offshore Radio in the UK in the ’60s: "You may not find us on your TV". Other on-screen television roles included The Monkees (1966) and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1967). Federal Budget Review
2184-468: The Lawrence Welk satire "Wunnerful! Wunnerful!" Barnet's was a notorious party band where drinking and vandalism were not uncommon. While Glenn Miller enforced strict standards of dress and deportment, Barnet was more interested in having fun, according to his autobiography Those Swinging Years: The Autobiography of Charlie Barnet . In 1949 he retired, apparently because he had lost interest in music. He
2268-428: The echo effect goes out of control, and "Elvis" eventually rips his tight jeans during the performance. With Foray, he recorded "The Quest for Bridey Hammerschlaugen", a spoof of The Search for Bridey Murphy by Morey Bernstein, a 1956 book on hypnotic regression to a past life , and an LP of the first actual hypnosis session. Freberg used a beatnik musician theme in his 1956 parody of " The Great Pretender ",
2352-597: The puppeteers for Bob Clampett 's puppet series, Time for Beany , a triple Emmy Award winner (1950, 1951, 1953). which was broadcast live on KTLA in Los Angeles, and distributed nationwide via kinescope by the Paramount Television Network , the pioneering children's TV show garnered considerable acclaim. Among its fans was Albert Einstein , who once reportedly interrupted a high-level conference by announcing, "You will have to excuse me, gentlemen. It
2436-415: The 1930s, regularly breaking up his band and changing its style. Early in 1935, he attempted to premiere swing music at New Orleans' Hotel Roosevelt , where Louisiana's colorful Governor Huey Long , disliking the new sound, had the band run out of town by luring them to a bordello, which was then raided. Barnet arranged with Joe Haymes to take several of his now-jobless sidemen, while he himself went on
2520-456: The 1966 California Governor's race between Edmund G. "Pat" Brown and Ronald Reagan , in which the idea of Reagan in the future running for U.S. president and winning, was used in song as a final, over-the-top gag. With the use of sound effects in an imaginary sequence for a promotional announcement for radio, Freberg drained Lake Michigan and filled it with hot chocolate, then cued a 700-foot mountain of whipped cream to roll into it, after which
2604-988: The B ♭ tonic." "Cherokee" has been recorded over the years by many jazz musicians and singers. Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra's 1939 version reached No. 15 on the pop charts; he later re-recorded it in Hi Fi stereo for Everest Records in 1958. It was later recorded by Charlie Parker , the Count Basie Orchestra , Duke Ellington , Sarah Vaughan (1955), Dakota Staton (1958), Art Tatum , and Keely Smith . The song has also been covered as an instrumental by Biréli Lagrène , Bud Powell (1950), Clifford Brown , Don Byas , Stan Getz , Lionel Hampton , Ahmad Jamal , Harry James , Wynton Marsalis , Christian McBride , Chet Atkins , Kamasi Washington on his album The Epic (2015) , and by Johnny Smith on his album Moonlight in Vermont . The difficulty of improvising on
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2688-589: The Dragonet ", Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America , his role on the television series Time for Beany , multiple characters in the Looney Tunes such as Pete Puma and Bertie , and a number of classic television commercials. Freberg was born Stanley Friberg on August 7, 1926 in Pasadena, California , the son of Evelyn Dorothy (née Conner), a housewife, and Victor Richard Friberg (later Freberg),
2772-405: The Dragonet ", a No. 1 hit for four weeks in October 1953. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. After " I've Got You Under My Skin " (1951), he followed with more popular musical satires, such as " Sh-Boom " (1954), a parody of the song recorded by The Chords . At the end, he yells "STELLA!" at a woman, imitating Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire . The B side
2856-607: The Little Blue Coupe and Lambert the Sheepish Lion . He received screen credit for his voice work on Three Little Bops (1957), where he voiced all the characters and sang the titular song. Freberg's interpretation of Pete Puma also provided the basis for Daws Butler 's voice of Sam, the orange cat paired with Sylvester in the Academy Award-nominated short Mouse and Garden (1960). He voiced Cage E. Coyote,
2940-563: The Moon (1984) and Lush Life (1993), a TV movie starring Jeff Goldblum and Kathy Baker . It was the tune the prisoners played in an attempt to start an avalanche and stop a German Panzer unit in the penultimate episode of Hogan's Heroes . Stan Freberg Stan Freberg (born Stanley Friberg ; August 7, 1926 – April 7, 2015) was an American actor, author, comedian, musician, radio personality, puppeteer and advertising creative director. His best-known works include " St. George and
3024-534: The New York and Chicago areas. He learned to play piano and saxophone as a child. He often left school to listen to music and to try to gain work as a musician. Although his family wanted him to become a lawyer, he chose to be a musician instead. By sixteen, Barnet had played on tours with Jean Goldkette 's satellite band and was in New York, where he joined Frank Winegar's Pennsylvania Boys on tenor sax. Always restless, by 1931 he had relocated to Hollywood and appeared as
3108-571: The Portland band Pink Martini as part of a signature series of performances throughout the state. Pink Martini toured the state and performed four regional performances in the northern, southern and central areas of Oregon in August and September 2009. This was made possible by a grant from the Kinsman Foundation for a $ 40,000 launch of Pink Martini's Oregon! Oregon! 2009 with Freberg. In 1960, in
3192-607: The Royal Canadian Air Force towed a 10-ton maraschino cherry overhead and dropped it on top. Some 25,000 imaginary extras cheered. Freberg returned to radio in several episodes of The Twilight Zone radio dramas in the early 2000s, including "The Brain Center at Whipple's", "Four O'Clock", "The Fugitive", "Gentlemen, Be Seated", "Kick the Can", "The Masks", and "Static". Beginning in 1949, Freberg and Butler provided voices and were
3276-655: The Tappa", "The Last Jump", "Knocking at the Famous Door", "Lazy Bug" (with Juan Tizol ), "Ogoun Badagris (Voodoo War God)", "Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie", and "In a Mizz", which was also recorded by Duke Ellington . "Skyliner", arranged by Neal Hefti , was written as the theme music for the late 1940s US Armed Forces Network program "Midnight In Munich", broadcast from the AFN station in Munich , Germany, and hosted by Ralph Moffat. Thanks to
3360-534: The band included Maynard Ferguson , Doc Severinsen , Jimmy Knepper and Clark Terry . Trumpeter Billy May was an arranger in the Charlie Barnet Orchestra before joining Glenn Miller in 1940. Barnet was one of the first bandleaders to integrate his band, with more black musicians working for him than virtually all of the other popular white bandleaders. Trumpeters Roy Eldridge and Frankie Newton and bassist John Kirby joined in 1937. Lena Horne
3444-560: The basis of Buddy DeFranco 's "Swinging the Indian". A vocalese version, based on the same chord sequence but with a different tune and lyrics, was written by Richie Cole and David Lahm in 1983 and is called "Harold's House of Jazz". The song was used in Jam Session (1944), Jasper in a Jam (1946), sung by Peggy Lee , The Gene Krupa Story (1959), and as background music in Racing with
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3528-456: The demise of his show, producing and recording " Green Chri$ tma$ " in 1958, a scathing indictment of the over-commercialization of the holiday, in which Butler soberly hoped instead that we'd remember " Whose birthday we're celebrating". The satire ended abruptly with a rendition of "Jingle Bells" punctuated by cash register sounds. The original version was somewhat longer when it was first released in 1958, but in later years Capitol did not reissue
3612-469: The famous fire at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles (October 2, 1939), which prevented Barnet's last show there. Throughout his career he was an opponent of syrupy arrangements. In the song "The Wrong Idea", he lampooned the "sweet" big band sound of the era. The song was written by Billy May, who later used the same satirical bent in his collaborations with Stan Freberg on Capitol Records including
3696-616: The father of Wile E. Coyote , in the 2000 short Little Go Beep . Freberg was cast to sing the part of the Jabberwock in the song "Beware the Jabberwock" for Disney's Alice in Wonderland , with the Rhythmaires and Daws Butler . Written by Don Raye and Gene de Paul , the song was a musical rendering of the poem " Jabberwocky " from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass . The song
3780-853: The first place." His final marriage, to Betty Thompson, was for 33 years. He had one son, Charles D. Barnet Jr., and two grandchildren from an earlier marriage, Jennifer Ann Barnet and Darren Charles Barnet . During retirement, Barnet resided at homes in Palm Springs and San Diego, California. He kept a 46-foot boat in San Diego. Barnet died from complications of Alzheimer's disease and pneumonia at San Diego's Hillside hospital, on September 4, 1991, aged 77. Charlie Barnet's compositions included "Skyliner", "Southland Shuffle", "Swing Street Strut", "The Right Idea", "The Wrong Idea" (with Billy May ), "Growlin'", "Scotch and Soda", "Midweek Function", "Oh, What You Said (Are We Burnt Up?)", "I Kinda Like You", "Tappin' at
3864-560: The full recording. Freberg also revisited the "Dragnet" theme, with "Yulenet", also known as "Christmas Dragnet", in which the strait-laced detective convinces a character named "Grudge" that Santa Claus really exists (and Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and the Easter Bunny, but Grudge still hadn't made up his mind yet about Toledo). Butler does several voices on the record. In 1958, the Oregon Centennial Commission, under
3948-552: The harmony of the B-section meant that many early soloists avoided doing so. Due to the tune incorporating many of the chords most commonly used in jazz and the multiple key 2-5-1 transitions of the B-section, the tune is often recommended by tutors as a core standard to learn early on in a jazz pupil's development. Charlie Parker famously learned the tune in all 12 keys during his early development to learn how to play, though embarrassed himself when starting in jazz because he had spent so much time on practicing Cherokee that his playing
4032-409: The hit by The Platters —who, like Ray (see above) and Belafonte and Welk (see both below), were not pleased. At that time, when it was still hoped that musical standards might be preserved, it was quite permissible to ridicule the ludicrous, as Freberg had obviously thought when he parodied Presley. The pianist in Freberg's parody, a devotee of Erroll Garner and George Shearing, rebels against playing
4116-430: The light of the payola scandal, Freberg made a two-sided single titled "The Old Payola Roll Blues", which tells the story of a corrupt recording studio promoter (voiced by Jesse White ) who finds "Clyde Ankle" (a play on the name of singer Paul Anka , with a storyline paralleling that of Bob Marcucci 's discovery of Fabian ), a teenager who cannot sing. Clyde records a song called "High School OO OO", which lasted only
4200-412: The line "You gets a little drunk and you lands in jail". Freberg concedes, "Take your finger off the button, Mr. Tweedly—we know when we're licked", furnishing both the moral and the punch line of the sketch. In 1966, he recorded an album, Freberg Underground , in a format similar to his radio show, using the same cast and orchestra. He called it "pay radio", a parody of the term pay TV , the nickname at
4284-400: The line, "Only the color has been changed to prevent an investigation." Later, he blatantly parodied Senator Joseph McCarthy with "Point of Order" (taken from his frequent objection). The "suspect" being investigated was the black sheep from the nursery rhyme, " Baa, Baa, Black Sheep ". (Butler: "I would be suspicious of anyone who tried to rhyme dame with lane .") Capitol's legal department
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#17332029437594368-533: The moods). Some radio stations refused to play "John & Marsha", believing it to be an actual romantic conversation between two real people. In a 1954 follow-up, he used pedal steel guitarist Speedy West to satirize the 1953 Ferlin Husky country hit, "A Dear John Letter", as "A Dear John and Marsha Letter" (Capitol 2677). West had played on the Husky hit recording. A seasonal recording, "The Night Before Christmas"/"Nuttin' for Christmas", made in 1955, still remains
4452-421: The pianist taking a liking to the arrangement only after he gets into an uncontrollably accelerating groove, despite the histrionic singer's pleas to keep tempo; the singer has to escape the studio. Freberg's "Banana Boat (Day-O)" (1957) satirized Harry Belafonte 's popular recording of " Banana Boat Song ". In Freberg's version, the lead singer is forced to run down the hall and close the door after him to muffle
4536-510: The promoter was never in the music business in the first place. Afterward, a song in the big band style heralds the end of rock and roll and a resurgence of swing and jazz. Freberg's record was on the Hot 100 only the week of Leap Day 1960, at #99, about three and a half months after Tommy Facenda 's multi-versioned "High School U.S.A." peaked at #28. Alan Freed , whose career fell prey to charges of payola, reportedly laughed at Freberg's interpretation of
4620-545: The radio station's powerful signal to home in on the city. Barnet had 78's, 45's, and 10"/12" LP's from 1935 to his waning years. The record labels on which he appeared included: Bluebird Records / RCA Victor , Decca Records , Apollo Records , Capitol Records , Columbia Records , Mercury Records , Clef Records , Verve Records , Everest Records , Crown Records , Vault Records , Joyce Records, Ajax Records, and Calliope Records . Cherokee (Ray Noble song) " Cherokee " (also known as " Cherokee (Indian Love Song) ")
4704-670: The response will be] "Oh? Why ?" Native: "Columbus Day!" Columbus: [pregnant pause] "We going out on that joke?" Native: "No, we do reprise of song. That help ..." Columbus and Native together: "But not much, no!" In 2019, Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume One: The Early Years was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Volume Two
4788-733: The role of Junyer Bear in Chuck Jones ' Looney Tunes cartoon What's Brewin', Bruin? (1948). This featured Jones ' version of The Three Bears . He often found himself paired with Mel Blanc while at Warner Bros. , where the two men performed such pairs as the mice Hubie and Bertie , the Goofy Gophers Mac and Tosh, and Spike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier . In 1952, he was the voice of Friz Freleng 's "Dumb Dog" in Foxy by Proxy , who meets up with
4872-527: The scandal. Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume One: The Early Years (1961) combined dialogue and song in a musical theater format. The original album musical , released on Capitol, parodies the history of the United States from 1492 until the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783. In it, Freberg parodied both large and small aspects of history. For instance, in the Colonial era, it
4956-402: The second version including a few words from the president of Blitz-Weinhard Co. This was followed by the show itself, which runs for 21 minutes. Side two includes separate individual versions of each of the featured songs, including several variations on the title piece, Oregon! Oregon! Fifty years later, as Oregon approached its Sesquicentennial, an updated version was prepared by Freberg and
5040-566: The show. That would mean that every three minutes I'd have to drop a commercial in. So I said, "Forget it. I want to be sponsored by one person", like Benny was, by American Tobacco or State Farm Insurance, except that I wouldn't let them sell me to American Tobacco. I refused to let them sell me to any cigarette company. Freberg's first wife, Donna, died in 2000. He had two children from that marriage, Donna Jean and Donavan . He married Betty Hunter in 2001. Freberg began his career doing impersonations on Cliffie Stone 's radio show in 1943. Freberg
5124-687: The sketch on the August 11, 1957 episode of The Stan Freberg Show . Freberg also tackled political issues of the day. On his radio show, an extended sketch paralleled the Cold War brinkmanship between the U.S. and the Soviet Union by portraying an ever-escalating public relations battle between the El Sodom and the Rancho Gomorrah , two casinos in the city of Los Voraces (Spanish for "The Greedy Ones"—a thinly disguised Las Vegas ). The sketch ends with
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#17332029437595208-451: The soprano saxophone, an instrument that had fallen out of favor after the 1920s and was not generally used in the big band era. In September 1964, Barnet arranged a private party for his musical hero, Duke Ellington, and orchestra to play at Palm Springs ' San Jacinto country club. At the door, a small sign painted by Barnet said: "Any complaints about loud music or requests for excessive use of mutes will be grounds for instant expulsion (to
5292-419: The sound of his "Day-O!" because the beatnik bongo drummer, voiced by Leeds, complains, "It's too shrill, man. It's too piercing!" When he gets to the lyric about "A beautiful buncha ripe banana/Hide the deadly black tarantula", the drummer protests, "I don't dig spiders!" The flip is "Tele-Vee-Shun", an anti-TV song about what television has done to his family, sung in a heavy faux- Trinidadian accent and set to
5376-586: The sponsorship of Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Company , hired Freberg to create a musical to celebrate Oregon's one-hundredth birthday. The result was Oregon! Oregon! A Centennial Fable in Three Acts. Recorded at Capitol in Hollywood, it was released during the Oregon Centennial in 1959 as a 12″ vinyl LP album. Side one featured two versions of an introduction by Freberg (billed as "Stan Freberg, Matinee Idol"), with
5460-434: The station's immensely powerful twin 100 kW transmitters, AFN Munich could be heard as far away as the UK; this, and the popularity of Moffat's show, evidently helped "Skyliner" and many other contemporary American swing hits to gain wide popularity across Europe and become hits in the UK. The title (which was originally printed as "Sky Liner") may be a reference to the practice of American pilots flying into Munich who used
5544-406: The team he used on his Capitol recordings, including Foray, Leeds, and Butler. Billy May arranged and conducted the music. The Jud Conlon Singers, who had also appeared on Freberg recordings, were regulars, as was singer Peggy Taylor, who later that year participated in his "Wun'erful, Wun'erful!" two-sided 45, recorded to capitalize on the response it received on the show. The show failed to attract
5628-581: The time for subscription-based television, "... because you have to go into the record store and buy it". The album is notable for giving Dr. Edward Teller the Father of the Year award for being "father of the hydrogen bomb " ("Use it in good health!"); for lampooning all-digit dialing ("They Took Away Our Murray Hills"); and for "The Flak-man and Reagan", a combined satire of the Batman television series featuring Robin, and
5712-420: The tiny tots" listening at home: "He don't, er, doesn't plant 'taters, er, potatoes , he doesn't plant cotton, er, cotting , and them-these-those that plants them are soon forgotting ", was a lyric of which Freberg was particularly proud. Even when the censor finds Freberg's rendition acceptable, the constant interruptions ultimately bring the song to a grinding halt just before Freberg would have had to edit
5796-474: The title of his autobiography (Prentice Hall, 1971), and he never publicly stated his exact reasons. Among the regulars on Welk's show who were lampooned were "Champagne Lady" Alice Lon , who became "Alice Lean", Larry Hooper became "Larry Looper", trumpeter-novelty singer Rocky Rockwell became "Stony Stonedwell" and the Lennon Sisters became the "Lemon Sisters." Freberg had performed a lengthier version of
5880-502: The ultimate tourist attraction , the Hydrogen Bomb , which turns Los Voraces into a vast, barren wasteland. Network pressure forced Freberg to remove the reference to the hydrogen bomb and had the two cities being destroyed by an earthquake instead. The version of "Incident at Los Voraces", released later on Capitol Records, contains the original ending. Freberg had poked fun at McCarthyism in passing in "Little Blue Riding Hood" with
5964-418: The well-known Ajax cleanser commercial. The lack of sponsorship was not the only problem, and Freberg also complained of radio network interference, factors which forced the cancellation of the show after a run of only 15 episodes. One sketch, "Elderly Man River", parodied the interference, as well as anticipating the political correctness movement by decades. Butler played "Mr. Tweedly", a representative of
6048-510: Was a 1982 (copyright 1980) PBS television special lampooning the federal government . In 1996, he portrayed the continuing character of Mr. Parkin on Roseanne , and both Freberg and his son had roles in the short-lived Weird Al Show in 1997. Freberg founded the Los Angeles-based advertising agency Freberg Limited, which produced radio and television commercials. Two of his largest clients were General Motors and Mellon Bank . He
6132-505: Was a parody of the Eartha Kitt record " C'est si bon ", broadcast in 1955 on the TV show Sam and Friends . Other songs include " The Yellow Rose of Texas " (1955), where a "Yankee" snare drummer gets out of hand on the recording; "Rock Around Stephen Foster ", a parody of recordings by Bill Haley and others in which a music arranger (Freberg) tries with mixed results to get a chorus to perform
6216-440: Was able to retire when he chose because he was one of the few heirs in a very wealthy family. He occasionally returned from retirement for brief tours but never returned to music full-time. In 1956, he released an album, Dance Bash , which was recorded over five years from 1947 to 1952. Known for a unique sound and hard-swinging style on tenor saxophone, Barnet in the late 1930s added the alto saxophone to his arsenal, followed by
6300-476: Was common to use the long s , which resembles a lowercase f, in the middle of words; thus, as Ben Franklin is reading the Declaration of Independence , he questions the passage, "Life, liberty, and the purfuit of happineff ?!? " Most of that particular sketch is a satire of McCarthyism. For example, Franklin remarks, "You...sign a harmless petition, and forget all about it. Ten years later, you get hauled up before
6384-438: Was employed as a voice actor in animation shortly after graduating from Alhambra High School . He began at Warner Brothers in 1944 by getting on a bus and asking the driver to let him off "in Hollywood". As he describes in his autobiography, It Only Hurts When I Laugh , he got off the bus and found a sign that said "talent agency". He walked in, and the agents there arranged for him to audition for Warner Brothers cartoons where he
6468-576: Was heard in It's a Grand Old Nag (Charlie Horse), produced and directed by Bob Clampett for Republic Pictures ; The Goofy Gophers (Tosh), and One Meat Brawl (Grover Groundhog and Walter Winchell ). Freberg voiced the character of Junyer Bear, but the role was actually created by actor Kent Rogers in Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears (1944) . After Rogers was killed during World War II , Freberg assumed
6552-441: Was inept when trying to solo over other tunes. While playing "Cherokee", he said that "I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes, I could play the thing I'd been hearing." Parker used this song for the basis of his 1945 composition " Ko-Ko ", which has a partially improvised head and the chords based on the changes of "Cherokee". Cherokee also formed
6636-545: Was not included in the final film, but a demo recording was included in the 2004 and 2010 DVD releases of the film. Freberg made his film debut in the comedy Callaway Went Thataway (1951), a satirical spoof on the marketing of Western stars (apparently inspired by the TV success of Hopalong Cassidy ). Freberg costarred with Mala Powers in Geraldine (1954) as sobbing singer Billy Weber, enabling him to reprise his satire on vocalist Johnnie Ray (see below). In 1963's It's
6720-667: Was one of Barnet's vocalists. Unusually, for a mainly white group, Barnet was booked to perform at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and established a new attendance record. He was an outspoken admirer of Count Basie and Duke Ellington . Ellington recorded the Charlie Barnet composition "In a Mizz". In 1939, in a gesture that was warmly appreciated and admired, Count Basie (who was booked 2 days after) lent Barnet some of his charts after his instruments, notes and arrangements had been destroyed in
6804-404: Was one of the talents recruited by Capitol Records when it launched its spoken-word division. He began on February 10, 1951, and produced satirical recordings about popular culture . One of his most notable releases was " John and Marsha ", a soap opera parody that consisted of the title characters (both played by Freberg) doing nothing but repeating each other's names (with intonations to match
6888-539: Was planned for release during America's Bicentennial in 1976, but did not emerge until 1996. Freberg's early parodies revealed his obvious love of jazz. His portrayals of jazz musicians were usually stereotypical " beatnik " types, but jazz was always portrayed as preferable to pop , calypso , and particularly the then-new form of music, rock and roll . He whopped doo-wop in his version of " Sh-Boom " and lampooned Elvis Presley with an echo/reverb rendition of " Heartbreak Hotel ". The United States of America includes
6972-430: Was promptly hired. Thus began Freberg's professional career in entertainment, which lasted for more than 70 years, all the way up to his death. His first notable cartoon voice work was in a Warner Brothers cartoon called For He's a Jolly Good Fala , which was recorded but never filmed (due to the death of Fala 's owner, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ), followed by Roughly Squeaking (1946) as Bertie; and in 1947, he
7056-477: Was very nervous. Freberg describes being called in for a chat with Robert Karp, the department head, and being asked whether he had ever belonged to any group that might get attention from McCarthy. He replied, "I am, and have been for a long time, a card-carrying member of... "—the executive went pale—"... the Little Orphan Annie Fan Club of America." The executive retorted, "No, this is serious; this
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